Earlier this week, Spiegler, who is questioning Burts’ claims about how he contracted HIV, offered him $1,000 to take the lie-detector test, which Spiegler would also pay for, and finally put all the rumors to rest.
Derrick Burts, also known as Patient Zeta, agreed to take the test to prove to the adult industry that what he’s saying about contracting HIV on a gay porn shoot in Florida and not in his private life, is in fact the truth.
“I don’t feel like I have anything to hide,” Burts told XBIZ. “I have nothing to lie about.”
After both parties agreed to a time and place, XBIZ, acting as the neutral third party, contacted polygraph examiner Richard Salinas to administer the test at the XBIZ offices.
Salinas, as part of his due diligence, contacted both Burts and Speigler in an effort to construct a total of four questions that would be asked during the test and that’s when the deal began to unravel.
Spiegler provided Salinas with specific questions that included:
- Have you ever worked as a gay escort?
- Have you ever engaged in swinging without a condom?
- Have you ever received anal sex from a male without a condom while off camera?
- Is it possible you may have contracted HIV outside of the adult entertainment business?
At which point, Burts replied in an email to Salinas that the questions were too broad and not time specific enough.
“I feel that Mark is trying to get answers to questions that are way to broad that will portray me in a negative manner. For him to pay me $1,000 as well as for an expensive polygraph test, he is going to want answers that favor his liking,” Burts said.
“Asking things like ‘If I ever did this or that’ could refer to any point and time in my life before contracting HIV,” he said.
“I would like to stick to the time frame in which I may have contracted HIV which is between August and September as the widest gap. Based off the Western Blot test I contracted HIV around mid September. My last negative test was Sept. 3. I tested positive on Oct. 8. There is a 60 day time frame for HIV to show in the body. So that would be all of August and September.”
But Spiegler said he is skeptical about the Western Blot test saying it is not 100 percent accurate and that the time frame is irrelevant because Burts could have been positive before it showed up on the test.
“There are [HIV positive] people who have lasted longer than 60 days without testing positive,” he said.
“He may have gotten it on a gay porn shoot, but it doesn’t mean that’s where he got it,” Spiegler added.
Burts then changed the questions to be more time specific and are as follows:
- Did you ever meet with anyone as a gay escort in the time frame you may have contracted HIV?
- Do you believe you contracted HIV while in Florida in the month of September with a gay performer you were booked with who was HIV positive?
- Did you have bareback anal sex with guys in any of your shoots in the time frame you may have contracted HIV?
- Is it possible you may have contracted HIV outside of the adult entertainment business?
“Please remind Derrick that the questions will be questions that I choose — not him,” Spiegler said.
“I am paying for the test and I want to have MY questions answered. Derrick cannot craft the questions to HIS liking. Those are the questions I want answered and he can take it or leave it.”
Spiegler told XBIZ that the whole point of the test was to get to the truth and to show that Burts could have contracted HIV through his personal activities outside of porn such as his escort site or swinging, which Burts admitted to doing in the past.
“Yes, I did have sex with partners while swinging without a condom,” Burts said.
“Is it possible that I got if from swinging? No. It was outside of the time period and every girl I did swinging with was cleared on the quarantine list. Have I EVER had anal sex with a guy before? Yes ... long time ago before starting porn. These are not specific enough. If I am going to do this test then the four questions have to be specific and not broad.”
At which point, Spiegler replied, “Well, I guess Derrick won’t be taking the polygraph after all.”
Spiegler said he thinks Burts honestly believes or convinced himself to believe that he contracted HIV from a porn set.
“I don’t believe it happened like that,” Spiegler said.
Meanwhile, Burts said he is looking into doing his own polygraph test.
“I’d love more than anything to have people in the industry believe me,” he said.
In then end, even though the test was never conducted, Spiegler paid the polygraph examiner $400 for his work.
As for Burts, in the new year, he will be going on a college speaking tour performing magic and also plans on becoming a safe-sex advocate.
